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OTTAWA – Canada Post’s abrupt announcement Wednesday that it will be ending door-to-door delivery in urban centres and sharply increasing the price of stamps represents a significant shift in the way many Canadians receive their mail. Here are the numbers and what they mean to you:

$1: This is how much you’ll pay for a stamp starting March 31, 2014, if you buy individually. That’s a 59-per-cent increase over the $0.63 you’re paying now. Stamps bought in packages or coils will cost $0.85 each (a mere 35-per-cent increase). Canada Post hopes it can generate an additional $200 million this way. But Denis Lemelin, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, has attacked the increase, saying “skyrocketing stamp prices will make the postal service inaccessible to many people.” For posterity’s sake, a stamp cost $0.46 in 2000.

5.1 million: The number of Canadian households currently getting door-to-door mail delivery. These will switch over to community mailboxes over the next five years, starting in the second half of 2014. They represent about one-third of households in the country. The remainder won’t see any change as they’re either already served by community mailboxes, rural mailboxes or centralized points such as apartment building mailrooms. Transport Critic Olivia Chow blasted the “short-sighted service cuts” Wednesday, saying the loss of door-to-door delivery would hurt seniors and people with disabilities. But Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton disagreed: “We have served a variety of Canadians for 30 years through community mailboxes and we’ve been able to make that work and work well.”

78: The percentage of Canadian households with high-speed Internet, a 14-per-cent increase from 2007. Canada Post has blamed the Internet, including e-billing and online banking, for a dramatic decline in the type of traditional mail its business model has long relied on.

6,000 to 8,000: The number of positions Canada Post is hoping to shed over the next 10 years. That represents about 10 per cent of the Crown corporation’s workforce. Canada Post says it should be able to reduce its workforce without significant layoffs as 15,000 current employees are expected to retire in the next five years. However, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of pink slips. “My expectation was that the package of measures that was going to get Canada Post back to financial sustainability would probably involve layoffs and what I’m seeing today suggests that attrition is going to be sufficient … That’s a significant achievement,” said David Stewart-Patterson, an executive at the Conference Board of Canada who studied the future of Canada Post this spring.

$269: The annual cost of door-to-door delivery to a single address, making it the most expensive of all delivery methods. It costs $117 for delivery to a community mailbox and eliminating door delivery will, Canada Post says, save $400 million to $500 million per year.

$1 billion: The amount Canada Post was expected to lose each year by 2020, according to a Conference Board of Canada report published in April. The Crown corporation reported in November that it had lost $134 million for the first nine months of this year, though the number would have been $243 million if it hadn’t sold off a mail processing plant in downtown Vancouver for $109 million.

$700 million to $900 million: The amount Canada Post says it expects to save with the changes that were announced Wednesday. Those figures do not include expected savings through work force reductions, nor do they take into account the company’s plan to fight the union over workers’ pension benefits.

106,000: The approximate number of community mailboxes that will be built over the next five years. Hamilton said there’s no”cookie cutter” formula for the number of households served by a single post box, but the average is 48. Community mailboxes also double as mail drop-off centres.

4 billion: The number of pieces of domestic letter mail delivered by Canada Post in 2012. That’s about one billion pieces fewer than in 2006 and works out to about 3.7 million fewer pieces of mail in the system each day. Much of the decline occurred between 2011 and 2012, when letter mail volumes decreased by 255 million over the year.

845,000: The number of new addresses Canada Post serves now, as compared to 2007. The Crown corporation says this increase, combined with an overall decrease in the volume of mail delivered, has exacerbated its poor financial situation.

6,400: The number of postal outlets Canada Post had across the country at the end of 2012, making it the largest retail network in Canada. That’s more outlets than MacDonald’s and Tim Hortons combined. These include stand-alone post offices and Canada Post “franchises” set up in existing businesses. In an effort to reduce costs, Canada Post says operating hours and inventory could be reduced at stand-alone offices and some self-serve services could be created.

60: The number of corporate-owned postal outlets (the remainder are franchised). Canada Post says the corporate outlets are responsible for less than half of all revenue generated by the network.

1,000: The number of new franchise outlets expected to be opened in existing businesses in the next five years. Hamilton said 200 postal franchises a year will be set up until 2019. There are no plans to close Canada Post offices or remove street post boxes as franchises are established, but Hamilton acknowledges that they’ll “make decisions as they go” because community post boxes will eliminate the need for some existing sidewalk boxes.

15: The farthest distance, in kilometres, most post offices are from where people live. The Canadian Postal Service Charter says Canada Post needs to ensure that 98 per cent of Canadians live within 15 kilometres of a postal outlet, 88 per cent within five kilometres and 78 per cent within 2.5 kilometres. The charter also imposes a moratorium on the closing of rural post offices, but is up for review in 2014.

2: The number of business days it usually takes to deliver a letter within the same city. Letters to an address within the same province should arrive in three days, and four days nationally (excluding the day of mailing). International letters are usually delivered within four to seven business days. None of these numbers is guaranteed by Canada Post – as consumers know.

46: The number of public consultations and roundtables that Canada Post and the federal government say were held across the country in developing the plan announced Wednesday. But opposition parties have questioned how complete those consultations were. “The consultation that Canada Post apparently did is singularly lacking in metrics, in numbers,” said Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. “It’s basically anecdotal. We need to make sure that Canadians are being properly served by an institution like Canada Post and that will require a little more robust discussion and study than this government has actually taken on.”

47: Days until members of Parliament return to Ottawa when they can discuss the new plan. The House of Commons rose for Christmas break Tuesday, the day before the announcement. “The fact that they’re announcing this after Parliament has adjourned tells you everything you want to know about how the Conservatives think Canadians will react,” NDP MP Peter Julian said. “They’re trying to shuffle this off and I think Canadians will be profoundly appalled about the cuts in services and cuts in jobs across the country.” The House next sits Jan. 27. The Senate managed a question or two on the issue Wednesday, since it was still sitting.

$0: The amount of taxpayer money being used to help Canada Post fight its way to financial sustainability. The Crown corporation says the changes it announced Wednesday are necessary to ensure this remains the case, and that it doesn’t become a drag on taxpayers. (By contrast, the CBC got $1.1 billion in tax funding for fiscal year 2012-13).

0: The number of senior Canada Post executives available to comment on the changes Wednesday. Canada Post spokesman Hamilton said, “They are focused on one of two things today: either talking to employees or trying to ensure we deliver Christmas without any disruption.” He suggested they might be available for interviews after the holiday season.

“The Government of Canada supports Canada Post in its efforts to fulfil its mandate of operating on a self-sustaining financial basis in order to protect taxpayers, while modernizing its business and aligning postal services with the choices of Canadians.” — Transport Minister Lisa Raitt.

“I think Canadians will be profoundly concerned of what the impacts will be in their communities. It’s not just those job losses, it’s the service losses across the country” — NDP caucus leader Peter Julian.

“We need to be mindful of costs and as mail volumes have continued to drop and we’ve taken a huge hit to our bottom line … we need to adjust.” — Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton.

“This decision will disproportionately affect the elderly and Canadians living with disabilities … Canada Post claims to be listening to Canadians, yet I’ve yet to hear anyone tell me that they no longer want letters delivered to their homes.” — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

“We are extremely concerned that these changes will send Canada Post into a downward spiral … The skyrocketing stamp prices will make the postal service inaccessible to many people.” — Denis Lemelin, Canadian Union of Postal Workers president.

“These job-killing and service-cutting measures will isolate seniors, the poor and the disabled living in urban areas.” — NDP transport critic Olivia Chow.

A History of Postal Services in Canada:

16th century: French colonists follow the native custom of moving mail along the St. Lawrence by canoe.

1753: Benjamin Franklin, the deputy postmaster general for the British Colonies, opens the first “Canadian” post office in Halifax.

1771: Weekly mail service becomes available year-round. Mail for Europe is shipped to New York, then to Europe.

1851: The colonies in North America gain control of their postal service from Britain.

1857: The time to move mail from Quebec City to Windsor, Ont. drops from 10 days to 49 hours with implementation of railway delivery.

1867: Confederation. The Post Office Department is created and Alexander Campbell is appointed the first Postmaster General.

2013: Canada Post begins charging developers $200 per address for the set-up of community mail boxes in new neighbourhoods.

(Sources: Canada Post, Canadian Encyclopedia, news sources.)

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Why Canadians will pay $1 a stamp and won’t get mail delivered to their door (with video)

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